12 years isn’t long in banking. Maybe too soon to build a corporate box to constrain it is why Bendigo and Adelaide Bank can do amazing things. Like PlanBig.

Maybe they remember they started as a community bank. Maybe they still believe in people, not just balance sheets. Yep, maybe that’s why. So what is PlanBig?

PlanBig is an on-line meeting place to launch discuss and get help to make ideas happen. A social network where want-to-doers can meet I-can-helpers. A place to float an idea or learn from others how they did things. A working social network community.

The surprising thing is that PlanBig’s not some grand plan pushed out of Wall Street or the City to kick-start a failed and untrusted banking community. Nothing could be further from the truth, or further away geographically. This is a small South Australian bank.

And they’re showing everyone the way.

Growing smarter, not just bigger

Bendigo and Adelaide began as a building society in 1858 and de-mutualised in 1998 as Community Bank®. But it never forgot its roots and built a legacy of social responsibility with initiatives like Community Telco, Lead On and Community Enterprise Australia.

It was this background that led it to consider doing something like PlanBig. But as they rightly point out on their website, “community” doesn’t necessarily mean “local” any more. The Internet has given this bank the opportunity to not just do something in its home town, but across the continent.

They’ve turned the web’s virtual two-dot-zero world into a real world outcome.

What’s in it for them?

Well, from what I can see, nothing tangible in terms of revenue. I can imagine any conventional bankers have stopped reading now. But what they’ve done is build an asset far more valuable than a few points above the line. They’re building trust and reputation.

The Bank sees this as just the start and believes it will become a “self-sustaining and self-moderating community that is of real use to passionate people and real benefit to communities with all kinds of plans, big or small.”

Well, if that’s true, what began as a noble gesture may ultimately pay dividends in the long term. And for that, I take my hat off to these guys. But is there more that could be done?

Cultivate internal user real estate?

When the banks first appeared on high streets, they were a part of the local community. OK, a call from the bank manager was viewed with trepidation, but they used to put Bob-the-Builder in touch with Beth-the-buyer. Customers would be connected into a pseudo-co-operative (small C) framework where everything existed in a closed loop.

But as the banks grew and became less distributed in their remit and more centralised in their policies, this community was lost until we had City HQ’s pulling strings and making decisions that were of little relevance and often disadvantaged local customers.

But the Internet has taken this distance and compressed it to the size of your PC screen. So could this be when our banks will think again about community, not just local but virtual. Isn’t it time they too began to PlanBig?

PlanBig has a launch webinar planned for its go-live on Wednesday, 24 Feb at 11:00am. This link will take you there.